Movies

October 6, 2019 11:00PM PT South East Asian filmmakers, Mouly Surya, Yeo Siew Hua and Anucha Boonyawatana have received commissions to direct short movies for the Singapore International Film Festival. Although other film festivals in Asia including Tokyo and Jeonju have previously ventured into production, it is a first for the SGIFF. It gave the

October 6, 2019 8:31PM PT Opening on Wednesday (Oct. 2), “Joker” landed on top of the South Korean box office. The Warner Bros. Korea release earned $16.2 million from 2.2 million admissions over opening five days, including $9.57 million earned over the weekend proper. Showing on 1,418 screens nationwide, the Joaquin Phoenix-starring psychological thriller accounted

Entertaining Power, a film sales agent from Hong Kong, is launching “Spiders and “I’m Living It” at the Asian Film Market, part of the Busan International Film Festival. “Spiders” is a topical and contemporary action adventure which follows a group of sailors, who come to believe that they are being stalked by a mutant creature

Eight films chosen from Busan’s ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ strand will vie for the festival’s annual Kim Ji-seok award this year. The award was instituted in 2017 in memory of late Busan international Film Festival programmer Kim Ji-seok, who nurtured a generation of emerging Asian talent during his tenure. From Hong Kong, Ray Yeung,

Indonesian production house KawanKawan Media is in Busan with two projects. “The Science of Fictions,” directed by Yosep Anggi Noen, premiered at Locarno where it won a special mention. It is playing at the Busan International Film Festival as part of the ‘A Window On Asian Cinema’ strand. The film is essentially a history of

Jordan’s Royal Film Commission has raised the upper limit of the cash rebate on eligible productions filming in the Kingdom to 25%, from the current 20%. The agency made the announcement on Sunday at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market on Sunday. The rebate scheme now ranges from 10-25% on all qualified expenses

Lee Seong-gang, one of Korea’s most experienced and successful animation directors, says he was forced into experimentation with his fourth feature “Princess Aya,” which plays this week at the Busan International Film Festival, in the Cinema Today-Panorama section. “There were some investments we could secure only if we make it as a ScreenX movie. It

The sparkling female stars of Alankrita Shrivastava’s “Dolly Kitty and Those Twinkling Stars,” produced by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms, have plenty going on in their careers. Bhumi Pednekar has had a very brief career so far, but she has made each role count. She made her debut in 2015’s “Dum Laga Ke Haisha” as an

October 6, 2019 1:50PM PT India’s Artbeat Studios has formally launched at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market with Don Palathara’s Malayalam-language feature film “1956, Central Travancore.” Artbeat is the sole Indian exhibitor at the market. The studio is the brainchild of screenwriter Abhilash S. Kumar, whose credits include acclaimed filmmaker Aashiq Abu’s

After a year in business, Korean indie sales company K-Movie Entertainment is looking to expand. Headed by Sylvie and Sophie Kim, the company launched in August last year, in time to make Busan 2018, its first sales market. Since then it has enjoyed sales success with Lee Won-tae’s action thriller “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil,”

“Deliver me from evil,” murmurs fisherman José (Arley De Jesús Carvallido Lobo) into clasped hands before he puts on his hat, steps into his canoe and sets off down the Magdalena River, delivering himself directly into evil. The placid waterway that is the thematic and geographical spine of writer-director Nicolás Rincón Gille’s unfeasibly gripping, slow-scorching

Joaquin Phoenix showed plenty of worldwide drawing power as “Joker” dominated international moviegoing with $140.5 million from 22,552 screens in 73 markets for Warner Bros. Along with the North American results, the worldwide opening weekend totaled an impressive $234 million, outperforming expectations. Directed by Todd Phillips, “Joker” has been the subject of scrutiny in weeks leading

Warner Bros.’ “Joker” laughed its way to a new record at the domestic box office. Despite mounting controversy and security concerns, the R-rated comic-book movie scored $93.5 million at 4,374 sites over the weekend and now stands as the biggest October launch of all time. Those ticket sales easily crushed the benchmark previously set last

“Old Boy” director Park Chan-wook says he is getting ready to make comedy horror film “The Ax.” The film would be a remake of the 2005 film by Greek-French director Costa Gavras, which was itself a adaptation of a Donald Westlake novel. The story involves a chemist who is make redundant due to outsourcing, and

October 5, 2019 8:36PM PT Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning “Parasite” was the winner of the 28th Buil Film Awards, held alongside Busan International Film Festival on Friday. The dark comedy won six awards, including best film. Other awards “Parasite” received included best supporting actor and actress, for Park Myung-hoon and Lee Jung-eun, respectively, best

Samuel L. Jackson has responded to Martin Scorsese’s comments that Marvel films aren’t real cinema. “I mean that’s like saying Bugs Bunny ain’t funny. Films are films. Everybody doesn’t like his stuff either,” Jackson told Variety‘s Angelique Jackson at the grand opening of Tyler Perry’s new studio in Atlanta, Ga. “Everybody’s got an opinion, so I

After a fallow 2017, European cinema at the Busan International Film Festival and the Asian Film Market enjoyed a renaissance in 2018. Now, this year is proving to be an improvement over 2018. European Film Promotions’ (EFP) Europe! Umbrella scheme, operated in conjunction with Unifrance has drawn 36 European sales companies, more than in recent

Acclaimed actor Tannishtha Chatterjee whose credits include “Brick Lane,” “Anna Karenina,” “Lion,” and “Parched,” makes her directorial debut with “Roam Rome Mein.” The film had its premiere at Busan’s ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’ strand. In the film, an Indian man goes to Rome looking for his missing sister and in the process discovers the

October 5, 2019 2:55PM PT Korean actress Bae Doona on Saturday received the Etoile du Cinema award. The prize was created last year by the French Embassy in order to acknowledge those Korean film talents who have helped South Korea-French collaboration in cinema. French Ambassador to South Korea, Philippe Lefort handed the trophy to the

After making a handful of award-winning shorts, Filipina filmmaker Antoinette Jadaone made her feature debut in 2011 with “Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay” that received considerable festival play, including at Busan in 2012. Her 2014 film, “That Thing Called Tadhana” is one of the highest grossing independent films in the Philippines. In addition,

October 5, 2019 1:48PM PT Korean indie sales company M-Line Distribution is handling rights to “Not in This World,” a drama by actor-director Park Jung-bum. The film has its premiere this week in the Korean Panorama section of the Busan International Film Festival. “World” tells the story of a hermit, who is lured out of

It’s not often one finds a period film born of reverent, deeply researched cinephilia that is also a rip-roaring slapstick comedy suitable for the whole family (those able to read subtitles, that is), but the utterly adorable “Talking the Pictures” fits just that double bill. Directed with supremely good-natured verve by Suo Masayuki, who worked

Parallax Films, one of China’s handful of indie sales outfits, has boarded Wang Jing’s “Changfeng Town.” It will present the film to international festivals and buyers at Busan, where it has its international premiere at the ‘A Window On Asian Cinema’ strand. The film is produced by China’s Anzhu Films and Singapore’s Wormwood Films. It

It has been a month since “Joker” had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and in that time Todd Phillips’ dark DC comic-book-villain movie has taken quite a journey. At Venice, it was greeted by rave reviews and rapturous audiences, and it won the Golden Lion (unheard of for a comic-book film). Yet

October 5, 2019 11:05AM PT The first movie poster for the latest James Bond film has landed on Twitter. Daniel Craig takes center stage in the new pic, which shows off the secret agent’s signature tux alongside his OO7 agent code. The poster also comes in celebration of James Bond Day, which marks 57 years

Weeks of controversial headlines aren’t getting in the way of a record-breaking weekend for Warner Bros.’ “Joker.” After taking home $39.9 million in Friday domestic ticket sales — the biggest October opening day ever — the R-rated supervillain film is eyeing a huge $92 million weekend total. That’s on the higher end of initial box

SITGES, Spain   —  Spaniard Alberto Gastesi’s “Singular” snagged the big prize at the 5th Sitges Pitchbox, a horror-fantasy-sci-fi showcase taking place on Friday at the Sitges Intl. Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which hosted the event in partnership with online marketplace Filmarket Hub. Following in the footsteps of Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman,

The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) on Saturday launched a package of measures intended to facilitate international co-productions and to attract location shooting to the country. The measures, which include the creation of a new structure known as FilmPhilippines were launched on Saturday at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market. FilmPhilippines

Newly-enthralled by the dynamism of Korean cinema, leading European filmmaker Mike Figgis is to make “Shame,” an Asian omnibus short film project with South Korean talent agency Saram Entertainment. Known for “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Timecode,” Figgis is head of the competition jury this week at the Busan International Film Festival. “The project will be

Leading Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, who Saturday was given the Asian Film Maker of the Year Award in Busan, said that the film industry should put aside political differences and instead pull together. South Korea and Japan are currently locked in a bitter diplomatic feud that sprang from a recent court ruling about World War